


A Beloved Enemy (is the hardest to kill)

by ArnaudB



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Gen, Happy Ending, Light Angst, Progenitor God Byleth is scary for Edelgard, Time Travel, silver snow
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-13
Updated: 2020-01-13
Packaged: 2021-02-19 09:10:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22242055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArnaudB/pseuds/ArnaudB
Summary: Byleth and Edelgard were enemies till the end, with the Black Eagles divided between their professor and their empress. Siding with the Church, Byleth ultimately defeated Edelgard and that was all the princess knew. Because now they were in the past and her professor definitively knew more than the first time around… and was still her professor.***A one-shot in three scenes of a plotline I wanted to try writing. I might revisit it later if there is interest.
Relationships: Edelgard von Hresvelg & My Unit | Byleth, Edelgard von Hresvelg/My Unit | Byleth
Comments: 2
Kudos: 53





	A Beloved Enemy (is the hardest to kill)

A Beloved Enemy (is the hardest to kill)

It should have been an easy mission. Edelgard rubbed her neck while watching her professor lead the Black Eagles. A faint imprint remained from her professor recent visit, hidden by her newly-acquired scarf. Their mutual attempts to hide their future hostile history from the class hadn’t been successful. Most of the class had picked up on the heightened tension between the professor and their princess.

Fighting bandits, that Edelgard vaguely remembered hiring a timeline ago, should have been a walk in the park. Edelgard and Byleth vastly increased abilities should have easily carried the day through. Unfortunately, discord in the leadership proved devastating for the ability of the Eagles to remain steady, in the face of needing to kill men trying to murder them. It wasn’t the best case scenario for a ‘simple mission where they could get their first kill safely’.

“Hubert, cover our right flank. Edelgard, hold my left. Petra, cover Lindhart.” Of course, Byleth’s tactical genius had accounted for it.

“Very well, professor.” Once the black-haired teacher split Hubert from her, the man needed no more to worry about an assassination attempt today. The professor started cutting down foes and frighten the opposition so the Eagles could deal with them. Still, they were edging dangerously close to routing and it was mostly Byleth and Edelgard steady slaughter of the undisciplined bandits that kept the team together.

“Stay strong against this rabble, we’ll be done soon!” Edelgard shouted to encourage them much as she had done in the future. Her eyes roamed ahead and the princess felt as startled as the rest when Bernadetta acted.

“No, no, no. I knew this was a bad idea. I should have stay home! No!” The distressed whines from the tiny archer didn’t bother Edelgard. They were commonplace and she knew the scared girl would grow into a murderously competent archer, hearing her whining was more nostalgic than worrying. The girl was between Byleth and Edelgard, the safest position to be in, on account on being the most likely to have a breakdown.

“W-Wait, Bernadetta!” Edelgard shouted as she saw said breakdown happens. Unfortunately, even Byleth couldn’t account for Bernadetta being so terrified of  both her professor and princess that she would run away… straight at the enemy. With a crest known for making its wielder  fast , it was no wonder the cursed thing allowed the tiny purple-haired girl to outrun a stunned Byleth. Edelgard felt herself moving but even her professor couldn’t catch up till Bernadetta was in the middle of enemies, who didn’t hesitate.

Edelgard felt her heart tighten at the sight of the tiny girl being gutted by an axe. It wasn’t enough to sicken her, not after all she had done in the future, and it could be a good thing given Bernadetta had ended up siding with Byleth… but it was still a blow when she was supposed to be stronger and this mission was expected to be easy. Nobody should have died here!

Then the world reversed.

“Bernadetta! Stick closer to Edelgard!” The princess heard Byleth sternly shouting an order while she felt her body briefly lock up as the golden wave passed unseen by others. Without waiting the teacher turned away and Edelgard saw black hair turn green as Byleth apparently  stopped holding back .

“R-Right!” Edelgard forced herself to turn toward Bernadetta. She was unable to repress some relief at seeing her alive.

“Come here… before you get yourself killed.” The words slipped out and Edelgard started to regret them when the girl shrunk on herself some more.

“Bernie knows, Bernie knows. Her being here was a terrible idea.” Edelgard could have lived without seeing her murdered, yes.

“You’re fine right now. If you get yourself hurt or killed though, expect both me and the professor to be mad at you.”

“I-I’ll be good!” The girl winced.

“Good.” With that promise Edelgard was finally able to focus on wrapping up this mission, before it turned into a mess.

Byleth had murdered half the bandits seemingly by himself, by the time Edelgard was able to contribute in a meaningful fashion. They didn’t let the bandits escape like two months ago. Even then it was over very shortly. A small skirmish to Edelgard’s experience of battles lasting for hours and days, although the rest of the Black Eagles clearly didn’t share her feelings.

“You did good putting them down. They’d have killed you if they could, and would have killed more people if you let them go.” It was after the battle that Edelgard found herself support Byleth in comforting their classmates about the necessity of killing, while painting the near-disaster as less of a mess than it had been. The words of comfort about the need to kill for peace flowed easily out of her, exactly like she had done hundreds of time in her time as the Heretic Empress.

Byleth didn’t seem to notice, oddly fixated on going from one student after another to check them for injury, staying silent on her speech her except for a single glance. Edelgard chose not to question it.

Today had made her realise that Byleth’s unmatched tactical and personal invulnerability became a lot less overwhelming than it once was. She had known Byleth could reserve time, but until today it hadn’t clicked in her mind that it was how Byleth had maintained a flawless streaks of victories against immense odds, over and over again.

“Indeed. Stick together and you’re much more likely to get through such times alive and well,” Byleth commented in a follow up to Edelgard’s words that she already couldn’t recall. The man patted Bernadetta’s head once before waving the class away from the now burned bodies. Edelgard watch the gesture and felt both her relief and seeing Bernadetta alive, and her hope at seeing her divine enemy capable of failure, turn to guilt.

Edelgard knew just how much Byleth’s Black Eagles and church forces had been outmatched again and again, by every army Edelgard and her backers could throw at the squad of her former professor. After today… just how much her action had tortured her teacher as he fought hopeless after hopeless battles against the Empire… and  won them all? How many attempts did it takes to succeed without ever losing a single student? Was it what had turned Byleth into a cold engine of war, all the grief and failures she hadn’t imagined the unbeatable pseudo-god ha ever experienced? Her teacher, her enemy, must have seen his students die  so many times.

Her hand her neck once more, her mind wandering again to two nights ago. Back then her teacher had accused her of creating him while choking her against the wall. Had she truly turned the man into that merciless deity? Ever since Byleth had chosen Rhea, what seemed so long ago, she had believed the cold nature of the green-haired Byleth had been Sothis’ true nature shining through. But if it wasn’t, then-

She needed to review her plans, and find a bucket.

*

  


After that mission Edelgard watched her go on his routine around the monastery with fresher eyes. She noticed Byleth circling around Bernadetta with gifts and awkward guidance. She trailed Byleth as he moved from one student to another, in what she recently thought was overbearing surveillance and seduction to make sure they him rather than Edelgard when the time came.

Now, knowing that Byleth must have seen all of them die: one, twice or maybe dozens of times… The hovering stopped looking jealous possessiveness and felt more like desperate concern. A crippling need to ensure they were alive and well.

Even Edelgard got gifts and attention at times, that doubled when he caught her following after him. The time-traveller princess was no longer certain it was to keep an eye on her, that the gifts were given to avoid making her stand out from his caring of the others Black Eagles. Even Hubert got gifts, and he was one Byleth threatened her to kill if he made a serious attempt on the professor again.

Her feelings once were becoming muddy again.

The hints had always been there. She had merely been blind to them. Edelgard noticed Byleth walking by the monastery pond as he so often did and glance at it. His steps stopped and he looked at the fish-filled water for a moment, a hand raising as if reaching for something, then the hand fell back at his side and the man walked off without a glance back at the water. Before the mission Edelgard never thought about the fact that Byleth hadn’t fished  once since coming back in time. She had just assumed the professor had been too busy acting on information gained from the future, despite knowing how much Byleth loved fishing.

It was one more trivia about her once-crush and now destined-enemy, that made her wonder just how much she had mixed up the merciless god and the man so awkward with emotions.

*

  


The course of somewhat peaceful days had to come to an end.

Edelgard knew her time was shrinking fast, despite the end of the year being still far away. Solon, Jeritza, Kronya… Her supposed ‘allies’ were dead by what appeared more and more to be Byleth’s handiwork. Threats from Thales grew more numerous and persistent, suspicion that she had betrayed him grew with her inaction, and events spiraled further and further out of her control. Edelgard came to realize just how little control she had over what was happening this year. She was almost a bystander in the covert clashes between Byleth and Thales.

Her every action, her every attempt to turn things around one way or another saw her pressed between her uncle and her professor. Between the man who had controlled her entirely for years and the incarnation of the progenitor god with unlimited attempts at shifting ambushes in his favour.

The nightmares worsening and ruining her rest didn’t help matter. Except when they did.

“Professor!” It all came to a head when Edelgard woke up screaming. This time there was cloaked figure in her room, surrounded by the tell-tales purple-sparks of the teleportation orb and with dripping daggers in hands. “Not again!”

Edelgard triggered the alarm ward she had insisted Hubert installed, throwing her pillow at the assassin to stall. She downed the all-purpose antidote laying beside her just as the alarm rang out, then she grabbed her dagger before launching herself from her bed at the attacker.

None of her preparations would have seriously bothered her time-manipulating teacher if he truly decided to kill her, but Edelgard wouldn’t feel like herself if she didn’t make him work for it.

Despite her hopes the assassin didn’t break under her assault. It seemed her uncle didn’t rely on assassins expecting her vulnerable when he finally decided to kill her, and probably use her death to start the war.

The attacker could barely match her strength and skill with two poisoned daggers to her mundane one. It wouldn’t be a contest if she had her axe but it was too far. Edelgard resorted to pummelling the weapons with her own, relying on her two crests to break the weapons, hopefully before they landed a proper hit.

A third crest shone in the air and suddenly Edelgard was sent flying backward by a double-legged kick.

“Of course, you’d have a major crest.” Edelgard rolled back to her feet and quickly found herself on the defensive, against a fighter much skilled at using daggers than herself. In a rapid exchange of blows she got nicked and then there was no more time to lose. Forgoing defence, Edelgard threw herself at the assassin.

The Crest of Flames blazed as she thrust her dagger through the neck-guard with enough force to sever the head form the spine and send it flying. Edelgard felt a feral smile start to appear on her face, the venom throbbing in her veins and the pain from the stab at her thigh made her aware it hadn’t been one-sided, but the expensive antidote should carry her through the minutes needed to get to a healer.

Time turned back in a golden wave and Edelgard found herself facing once more from her bed. Disbelief then dread filled her as she was forced to consider that her professor had finally decided to get rid of her. The weapons weren’t those of Byleth and her opponent wasn’t as overwhelming as her teacher, but maybe if he was holding back to pretend being some unknown assassin… it was possible.

Pure determination to not just die kept her body moving just enough to fumble with her dagger, and barely parry a thrust that would have skewered her. Then just as she started clashing with the assassin her door was flung off its hinges and her professor rushed inside. She was only able to spot a hint of green hair before the overwhelming fury and power of the progenitor god tore away her assailant. The assassin tried to fight, losing one limb in each exchange with Byleth’s blade before suddenly vanishing in the glow of teleportation.

Time turned back once more and as the assassin lost her firm arm Byleth rushed forward. Edelgard watched his gloved hand reach with the attacker’s robe and tear free a metallic orb. The impassible god proceeded to break any resistance from the assassin, that he obviously wanted to capture alive if not whole. Edelgard startled again as her teacher put a hand inside the assassin’s mouth, tearing out something she soon realised was a poison capsule. But time didn’t rewind. Had her teacher  guessed it was there from previous experience?

The assassin cursed while Edelgard tried to slow her thunderously beating heart. Suddenly faced with no opposition, the princess couldn’t control her shaking limbs. She wished she had her teacher’s heartlessness in that moment.

Byleth tore free the hood from the assassin and froze seeing the woman’s face. She curiously looked over.

“I don’t know you?” He said in a puzzled tone.

“Did you expect to?” Edelgard found herself asking while trying to get out of bed, again.

“Maybe?” Her professor answered in a tone that sounded positively sheepish for the man. Edelgard chuckled, feeling oddly reassured at the display of humanity oft hidden within the divine juggernaut her teacher was these days.

“Thank you for saving my life, professor. Or at least saving me a trip at the infirmary.” The adrenaline was coming down, she could tell. The assassin struggled to swear again or maybe cast something, despite Byleth’s gloved fingers tightly holding her tongue. Byleth himself paused in his task of securing the woman to stare back at Edelgard with a face that still betrayed so little emotion. After an almost too long moment he offered two words.

“Anytime, Edelgard.” She hummed pleasantly. His posture and the situation oddly reminded Edelgard of when they first met. Back then Byleth had protected her from a bandit. It was the farthest point at which she could recall her crush starting. Maybe it wasn’t surprising that now was when she realised this man was still the one who made her fall in love.

“I’m starting to believe that, my teacher.”

  


**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. I wanted to explore a Enemy to Lovers dynamic and that's what I ended up writing. I do have ideas but I am reluctant to commit to another big project (long story are hard). Manifest yourself if you're interested, or even if you just enjoyed it. Feedback even bad is always useful and welcome.


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